The new Vodafone building in Oporto is a five storey high, with three basement levels, open space office building. It will certainly become an architectural landmark for the city. The 7336m2 slab building is defined by its highly irregular white concrete façade. The purpose of this irregularity is to convey a “sensation” of “motion”, as this is the brand image of the Client (Vodafone). The development of the geometry and the structural design was made by Afaconsult (Portugal). The designed building will be the new office headquarters of the communications enterprise “Vodafone” for the northern region of Portugal. It will have three basement levels for parking, technical rooms and training rooms. The ground floor will be used for a mega-store and the upper floors will be for “open-space” typework areas. The Building’s main characteristic is its white concrete façade. It is made up of planar irregular polygons that create a jagged shell of concrete and glass. The façade will also act as one of the main load carriers of the building so that no additional slab supports will be required along the periphery of the building. This design required a great articulation between the architect and the structural engineering team and allowed for the structure to be “hidden in plain sight”. To maintain coherence between the outer geometry and the interior spaces, one of the cores and several columns will also have an irregular geometry and almost no vertical alignments will exist.The designed building will be the newoffice headquartersof the communications enterprise “Vodafone” forthe northern region of Portugal. It will have three basementlevels for parking, technical rooms and trainingrooms. The ground floor will be used for a mega-storeand the upper floors will be for “open-space” typeworkareas.The Building’s main characteristic is its white concretefaçade. It is made up of planar irregular polygonsthat create a jagged shell of concrete and glass.The façade will also act as one of the main load carriersof the building so that no additional slab supportswill be required along the periphery of the building.This design required a great articulation betweenthe architect and the structural engineering team andallowed for the structure to be “hidden in plain sight”.To maintain coherence between the outer geometryand the interior spaces, one of the cores and severalcolumns will also have an irregular geometry andalmost no vertical alignments will exist.

The designed building will be the newoffice headquarters of the communications enterprise “Vodafone” for the northern region of Portugal. It will have three basement levels for parking, technical rooms and training rooms. The ground floor will be used for a mega-store and the upper floors will be for “open-space” type work areas. The Building’s main characteristic is its white concrete façade. It is made up of planar irregular polygons that create a jagged shell of concrete and glass. The façade will also act as one of the main load carriers of the building so that no additional slab supports will be required along the periphery of the building. This design required a great articulation between the architect and the structural engineering team and

allowed for the structure to be “hidden in plain sight”. To maintain coherence between the outer geometry and the interior spaces, one of the cores and several columns will also have an irregular geometry and almost no vertical alignments will exist. The building’s 0.30m thick concrete flat slabs will be supported in the basement levels by the soil retaining walls, by the building’s two stair cores and by an array

of columns of approximately 8×8m2. In the upper floors the building’s plan area is decreased and the main load carrier becomes the 0.40m thick façade, the cores and 3 main columns. The façade carries the load from the slabs and its own self-weight, working as an arch and passing the forces from one level to the other trough point supports on the vertexes of the arches. The transference of loads between the façade and basement levels is done through concrete walls in the first basement level (−1) that act as deep beams. These deep beams are supported by the columns in the parking floors (−2 and −3).